The therapy office where I have my psychiatry practice is starting some yoga groups for trauma survivors, and asked me to make some things for a small retail space in the waiting room to help fund them, as they are targeting clients who lack the means to pay for them. So I came up with some “quick” yoga-friendly designs. I used ironic quotes on “quick” because naturally I started playing around with gluing the cutout pieces back in in contrasting colors, and now they’re not really all that quick any more!

The colored wood is from The Wood Gallery. The bordeaux (dark red) is pretty fragile; I have to be super careful not to nick it when weeding, because the color will scrape off even when just gently using a fingernail. The regular red is kind of light and more orangey than I like; it will be fine for hearts and Valentinesey stuff, but I haven’t liked it for anything else I’ve tried with it so far. Otherwise I’ve been pretty happy with their stuff—and they get 5 stars for their packaging! Each piece is in its own sturdy plastic bag, the whole stack is sandwiched in chipboard and plastic-wrapped, then wrapped in bubble pack. I was impressed!

The background is cut in .20” blackboard stock I found at Home Depot. The cut edges burn to the exact shade of black as the front, which makes it kind of awesome.

I like how you slipped in the Star Wars earrings for the yoga studio. I work with a guy who is a Star Trek yoga instructor. As I understand it, they combine cosplay with yoga. I’ll assume the same here.

I can second how well packed The Wood Gallery plywood is. My first thought was: how convenient a plastic bag to contain any residual smoke smell. I’ve only used a little bit of the blue. I’m not sure what exactly I’ll use the rest for, but when I do figure it out I’ll be ready.

It’s a therapy practice actually, pretty holistic bunch including traditional talk therapy modalities, hypnotherapy, art therapy, massage, and yoga. And then there’s me, the “drug dealer” (prescriber). My assistant and I and one of my current interns are all big scifi geeks, so we have to slip in the odd Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc. reference whenever we can. (The name on my business license is Serenity Mental Health, which is also a veiled geek reference; every once in a while someone catches on to that one, too!)

My Daughter had a traditional lotus blossom tattooed between her shoulder blades while she did an internship in Thailand - by a guy sitting on the curb, dipping his bamboo skewer into a bowl of 'ink". So yeah, it really was traditional.
Those lotus earrings are great! I’ll have to work some up for her.

I wonder then what if a thinner MDF was used, then painted with chalkboard paint, would that work better for earrings, would it give you the same effect but better for hanging the earrings? (paint the mdf either before or after lasering).

Plywood. The first pair I cut from (non-PG) hardwood immediately broke when I started to add the hardware. The PG might hold up better, but I figure the extra strength of the plywood is probably better anyway.